LordArioch
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SoC Dev Diary 2: Wounds
🕑 Added 2019-10-30 20:40:16 +0000 UTC
Sup, Rein here, with another, long-delayed SoC Development Diary, this time concerning Wounds, Damage, and Death Spirals.
The wounds have been perhaps the biggest obstacle on the way of the rework, primarily because at first, I had no intention of messing with them. I expected the skill rework to be taxing on our workload by itself, with the sheer volume of the events currently in place, so I was mindful of adding further changes, especially if I was convinced the current systems were *fine*.
But wounds weren’t *fine*. Or at the very least, they weren’t what we would need going forward.
The existing system is pretty simple - whenever a scene had Rowan taking damage, the game would add a wound to his character sheet, hand-tailored to reflect the wound description. That in itself proved to be a problem, as Rowan was taking *a lot* of physical injuries - and little else. With the new skill system reducing the number of skills in play, Rowan quickly started accumulating an exuberant amount of Combat Prowess, Brawn and Agility skill penalties. And as checks involving skills like Combat Prowess, Brawn and Agility tended to result in physical injuries if failed…
You’re seeing where I’m going with this, right?
So that was one issue that kept haunting me. The other was the custom nature of the wounds themselves - a wound could be anything, from a -1 penalty to one skill that lasted a week, to a -10 penalty to several skills that lasted 3 months. That made it difficult to create ways for the player to interact with Rowan’s wounds, and it made tracking Rowan’s state very frustrating, both for the player and the game itself.
The data could be aggregated - there was nothing stopping us from keeping track of total number of penalties applies, the average duration of wounds, categorize the severity of each wound based on its properties - but in all honesty, the preliminary work on that felt like putting a lot of effort to apply a patchwork solution to a system that simply did not provide us with what we wanted. I didn’t want a complex wound system. I wanted something straightforward, that is easy to grasp for the player. Something that doesn’t distract people from their eternal hunt for more tits.
So I started from scratch. And several months later, here we are, with the new draft of the damage and wounds system, ready to see the light of day.
Damage and Wounds.
To start with, if Rowan gets injured during scenes, he will now take “damage” rather than direct wounds. I call it “damage” with parentheses, since for us it doesn’t equate physical damage, and rather represents the accumulation of physical weariness, mental fatigue, minor injuries like cuts or common illnesses pilling up, and even Rowan’s luck running out. All of this is portrayed on the Damage Bar, which fills up with Damage until it reaches a certain Threshold. Once it does - Rowan receives a Wound.
Upon receiving a Wound, the Damage Bar is cleared, to give the player some breathing space. What exact wound is received is semi-random (though they’re all more or less of equal impact), rolled from a group of wounds reflecting the last Type of Damage received.
What Types of damage are we talking here? There is a handful of categories, split between location, weapon used, and even the emotional impact of the blow. The goal here was simple - to create a variety of wounds Rowan can receive, so he doesn’t always end up with stab wounds, bruises and broken bones, as was often the case earlier
So for example, let’s assume Rowan is in a battle with an orc in the Bloodmeen arena, and receives a devastating blow to the face that pushes him past the Damage Threshold. As the battle ends in a very public defeat, this damage is categorized as [Face/Humiliation], meaning Rowan will now receive a random Wound from either [Face] or [Humiliation] Category. Each will come with a short description and an adequate name, as they should:
- Humiliation Wound: Shame: -1 diplomacy, -1 deception, for 8 weeks.
“The memory of his last failure is still fresh in Rowan’s mind, making it hard to look people in the eyes.”
- Humiliation Wound: Denial: -1 Combat Prowess, -1 Diplomacy, -1 Stealth, +1 Deception, for 8 weeks.
“His last failure might have been humiliating, but Rowan will go through great lengths to convince everyone nothing of the sort ever happened. “
- Humiliation Wound: Irritation: -1 Stealth, -1 Wilderness Survival, -1 Perception, +1 Combat Prowess, for 8 weeks.
“The memory of his last failure is still fresh in Rowan’s mind, and whoever has the misfortune of crossing Rowan’s path will quickly learn it was a one-time thing.”
- Face Wound: Ugly Bruising: -2 Diplomacy, for 8 weeks.
“An ugly reminder of Rowan’s recent defeat makes it difficult to persuade others.“
- Face Wound: Eye Injury: -2 perception, for 8 weeks.
“Be it a minor abrasion to the eye itself, or heavy swelling around it, Rowan is forced to rely on his other senses for the time being.”
- Face Wound: Concussion: -1 Combat Prowess, -1 Agility, -1 brawn, +1 stealth, for 8 weeks.
“Nausea, dizziness, vomiting. Better to avoid physical confrontation with anyone, at least for now.”
(Obviously, that’s all work in progress. The game will likely have around ~18 general wounds total, categorized so that that there’s always at least 3 possible wounds to gain whenever Rowan takes damage.)
The numbers themselves will be tweaked, but the intent is simple - wounds should be lasting, impactful, and feel like a significant event the player should take notice of, akin to a building being finished or new research being completed. Ideally, the game ought to offer various ways of dealing with wounds. For the time being, two will be guaranteed.
The obvious choice is to, of course, tough it out. Simply wait for the wound to run its course. That’s a viable option, very fitting of Rowan’s character. We do, however, run into the classic problem of wound penalties resulting in failed checks, which result in further wounds with further penalties (the aforementioned death spiral). To counter that, we will have a simple system that will decrease Rowan’s susceptibility to wounds with each wound currently on his body, with the working name for it being “Tenacity”.
The second obvious choice is to heal up. In time, I’d love to have a sexy chaos nurse keeping Rowan in peak physical condition, but being a practical man, for now we’ll be retrofitting Cla-Min’s shop to handle healing. Along with temporary skill buffs, this will be the primary gold sink for Rowan. Nothing of substance is decided beyond that, but I plan for it to some Anti-Frustration Features, like free healing before major story segments, or the ability to go into debt if the player has 3 wounds and no money, when they’d rather have no wounds and 3 money.
And that’s basically all that has been decided on the subject so far. I’m still working with DarkMaster to fine-tune the system, so as always, feedback of all kinds would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your continuous support of Seeds of Chaos. You’re all wonderful people, so don’t be afraid to say Hi on Discord!
FAQ:
So what will the player need to keep track of ingame?
New wounds taken, and nothing else. The player will be able to check their current Damage and how close they are to a new wound, but there’s nothing they can do with that info, as the game will not offer ways to heal Damage directly. Similarly, the game itself will not tinker with Wounds themselves - it will never mysteriously extend or shorten their duration. If the game says a wound will last until week 34, the player is guaranteed it will do so, unless they heal it themselves.
Comments
Bason Jorne
you could theoreticly add a new location for him to recover and add new storyelements / scenes there. like a coven, a witches hut, the faction of the "old way" or another faction of the "new way". so he says he is going out there explore , but in reality he heals up maybe? you could even have events were he goes to a church/town not controlled yet by demons and tells him of the wounds he suffered while trying to protect the land from the awefull demonhords. Besides that i only see adding random events where he mihgt nrecover a wound while exploring / visiting yertain areas. ... i hope maybe some of that was helpfull.
Rein
I am aware of the death spiral problem, and have put in mechanics that prevent it, though did not elaborate on the topic. The problem with keeping Rowan bedridden is that many castle events rely on the assumption Rowan was not present in it during the past week. Initially, I had plans to have Jezera let Rowan secretly recover away from the castle, as Andras would never agree to let Rowan just lazy around being a sissy about something silly like a punctured lung. For the time being, I've put those plans on the backburner, since I believe they won't be necessary. There are partial successes and partial failure. It all depends on the event itself - some can accomodate them, others do not. There will be mechanics that help player catch up after failing too much.
Bason Jorne
i would like to say that negative effects can lead into a deathspiral. as you seem well aware, if you get the first debuffs the next come more easily. you can give wounds in events ... story moments ... random mapevent , choices and checks .... even use this to your advantage and make some "bedridden" scnenes where he is wounded .... but rememeber that you punish the players for basicly doing exploration these checks ect... if you do that its ok BUT you need to account for lost time, so you should be aware that ok ... uring an average somehow subpar played playthrough you miss out on 6 weeks so i lengthen the timerequirements for certain event by this amount of time ... which leads me to another suggestion ... dont ahve fail/pass events at certain points. pls add a "middle" ground :D .... Besides all that i said i agree with above ... the lvling system is painfully slow and not rewarding at all ... i rather have more skillpoints and ways to adjust my char and more difficult intricate skillchecks then jsut spimle skilchecks where it doesnt matter if i had this +1 point in skill xy
Sirseatbelt
I've only been a member for a little bit and havent scrolled through older dev diaries. Thanks for the update. :)
Lord Arioch
If you'd read the other posts about mechanics, you would have seen we are overhauling the entire system - wounds are just one part of it.
Sirseatbelt
Agree. XP gain seems really slow, and the impact of levels seems minor. +1 to some skills from a level and I've gained 1 level in 30ish weeks? The system feels like an afterthought
That sounds kinda cool, but the wait time seems rough considering the hero has time limits for certain major events. So far, I think I've only gained one or two levels each playthrough... I'm not sure I'm playing correctly. In addition to that, the item list doesn't portray images of the items I want, or give me an idea of the benefits the items portray making it difficult for me to purchase any items i'd like to use during the game. The struggle is real... yall doing amazing though, keep up the good work!
Rein
Most rewards come in form of castle resources and exp. Temporary skill buffs can be present, but it's unlikely for them to be common. The player might see permament buffs or year long buffs for completing major story events though, like rescuing Helayna or Delane.
November
Will there be postive buffs for accomplishing events successfully?
Robert Arctor
I'm sure there would be several characters ready and willing to offer healing services, for a more or less explicit price. I think X'zaratl already offered Rowan her special brand of healing against a bothersome conscience. I'm certain Cliohna would be happy to offer therapy sessions 🤯🤪
squarenuts
Sounds like its time to introduce the Cobra healthcare character. 😉 https://www.healthcare.gov/unemployed/cobra-coverage/ Sexy nurse you say... https://youtu.be/E5Zn2Fv6n6Q
